Sunday, April 03, 2005

of unis and moonies

Have you ever wondered what the differences and distinctions are between four very similar sounding faith-based organizations; and more importantly, which one is headed by the infamous Reverend Sun Myung Moon (and has control of some major news outlets in this country ~ hmmmm, that certainly explains a great deal about what is wrong with the news these days ~ but that's another post for another day...)?

All things spiritual, metaphysical and esoteric fascinate me and I also have a passion for the study of all religions; World Religions was my very favourite college course, even more than the art and music classes I had, and to this day I love finding out about various spiritual practices and religious groups.

I've been insatiably curious about the distinctions between the various unis for a long while, especially since I know that I can relate to alot of the apparent tenets of at least two of the disciplines, though I consider myself to be an eclectic solitary pagan (heh, in fact imho Jesus ... but no, I don't think I will go there...). But naturally since there are four distinct groups out there with very similar names, I've wanted to make sure that I understand the differences and compare each one's mission statements to get an idea what each one is about.

Here are some links to each of them:

The Unity Church evidently is a Christian thought movement which resonates best with my belief system related to Jesus and his purpose here (i.e. Jesus is the Son of God as we are all Sons and Daughters of God and Jesus was the Way in the sense that he came here to wake us up to our heritage and acted as the perfect example and prototype to that heritage and the potential that we all have to live that way) and the history of the church's origins is really fascinating. Marianne Williams is associated with one of these Unity Churches, The Renaissance Unity Church and part of the teaching is A Course in Miracles, which I have studied and that is how I discovered the existence of the Unity Church.

The Unitarian Universalist Association, as near as I can tell shares some of the principles of the Unity Church and many other disciplines; this is a new thought movement that encompasses the teachings of Christianity and other religious and even secular humanist teachings; the anathema to those who strictly believe in a salvation-based Christian religion (i.e. that only through Jesus' death and ressurection and belief in him as personal saviour can one enter the Kingdom of Heaven ~ a notion that while I most certainly respect others' right to believe in, I personally reject as absolute unerring ultimate truth, which is why I cannot consider myself to be a Christian in that sense of the word), this Church also resonates very strongly with my personal beliefs and also has a fascinating history.

The Universal Life Church is also non-denomination and on the first page declares that you can become a legally ordarined minister! right now! online! ?????????

As to what its basic tenets are.... you got me; I couldn't figure it out beyond following the Golden Rule; which admittedly, if were truly followed by anyone, should probably be all anyone needs to live and ethical and principled life (after all, I believe this golden rule: "An it harm none, do as ye wilt"... but then again there is so much more to it than that....), but I kind of thought there might be more information forthcoming... if there was, I didn't catch it in the quick overview. Or in any case, I couldn't glean much information about it from that page.

So there you have it. A starting point anyway, for learning a little bit more about all things Universal, Unity and Moonie.